WASHINGTON, DC — While Bill Sammon’s new book reports that President Bush is lauding the rise of the conservative alternative media, Accuracy in Media (AIM) notes in a column released today that the Bush Administration’s deal to let an Arab company take over some port operations has been exposed and undermined by the same forces of new media.

“The conservative blogs and talk radio are why the issue has become a national controversy, even a scandal,” says AIM editor Cliff Kincaid. “The alternative media exposed the anti-Bush CBS Memogate documents as phony,” Kincaid noted, “But they have also exposed the holes in the administration deal that is becoming known as Portgate.”

The Sammon book, Strategery, quotes President Bush and adviser Karl Rove as saying that the Memogate scandal, initially uncovered by conservative bloggers during the heat of the 2004 presidential campaign, badly hurt CBS and the mainstream media and backfired in favor of the Bush campaign. “I think what’s healthy is that there’s no monopoly on the news,” Bush told Sammon.

“This is also why people are starting to talk about Portgate,” Kincaid commented, “and why polls now show that 70 percent of the public opposes the deal. Conservative talk radio, led by Michael Savage, and the blogosphere have demonstrated their independence of thought and action by going after the Bush Administration in this case.”  

Kincaid noted, however, that not all of conservative talk radio criticized the deal. After dilly-dallying, Rush Limbaugh jumped on board, favoring the deal by saying that the U.S. should be encouraging capitalism in Arab states.

Kincaid commented, “The UAE does have a free market economy. But it is also a Sunni Islamic authoritarian regime, with less political freedom than the new Iraq.” 

In his column, posted at http://www.aim.org, Kincaid noted that “the democracy we’re fighting for in Iraq does not exist in the UAE.”

Accuracy In Media (AIM) is a non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage.

To schedule an interview with AIM Editor Cliff Kincaid, contact Anne Tyrrell with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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